Dec 11, 2014The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations:
NIST;
Ekahau;
University of Memphis, Checkpoint Systems;
Atlas RFID;
MEPS Real-Time;
Fujitsu Laboratories; GuestDriven, and Estimote.
NIST Study Makes the Case for RFID Forensic Evidence Management
A newly published report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) makes the case that using radio frequency identification systems can be an effective means of tracking and managing forensic evidence—and, if well implemented, can pay back initial setup costs within approximately two years.
According to NIST, although some law-enforcement agencies are employing bar-coded labels to improve forensic evidence tracking, storage and retrieval processes, very few have implemented RFID due to concerns regarding startup costs, the technology's reliability and the current lack of relevant RFID standards for property and evidence handling. The report, titled "RFID Technology in Forensic Evidence Management, An Assessment of Barriers, Benefits, and Costs," is designed to help agencies better understand these issues and properly assess the pros and cons of RFID evidence management.
The NIST report explores whether RFID technology can produce measurable benefits and a positive return on the funds invested in a new system. Various factors can affect the payback. For example, solutions that track and manage larger inventories of evidence (100,000 items or more) will recoup costs more quickly than those handling smaller inventories. However, if multiple jurisdictions share a system's costs, the payback period can be shorter.
The report includes an overview of automated identification technology (AIT)—focusing primarily on RFID and bar-code technologies—and how they work. It describes the types of RFID systems available (passive, active and battery-assisted), their price ranges, and the components necessary for a complete system. The report also details the barriers that agencies may encounter, and provides a series of successful RFID management case studies, including examples from the pharmaceutical and retail industries, as well as one law-enforcement agency that has made the switch: the Netherlands Forensics Institute.
The report is the result of a NIST-funded study on AIT. The Technical Working Group on Biological Evidence Preservation, cosponsored by NIST and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), commissioned the study and report, which can be downloaded for free at www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=916133.
Austrian Psychiatric Clinic Protects Staff, Patients via Ekahau RTLS
Ekahau has announced the implementation of its RFID-over-Wi-Fi, real-time location system (RTLS) safety and messaging solution at the National Psychiatric Clinic in Hall/Tyrol, Austria. The clinic is using the system to help protect employees and patients.
The clinic's psychiatric forensics department, which treats patients suffering from mental illness, lets patients move freely throughout the facility, but unpredictable behaviors pose a safety risk for both hospital employees and other patients. Now, staff members wear Ekahau's Wi-Fi based B4 badges. If an employee requires assistance, he or she can simply pull down on the badge so that nearby co-workers will receive a request for help, which is displayed on the badge LED as a text message. The solution reduces the amount of time it takes for the staff to react to the event, Ekahau reports, by displaying the location of the caregiver requesting assistance, and eliminating the need for map look-ups and manual dialing.
Ekahau's B4 badges can be tracked and located via the Ekahau RTLS solution over any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network, and can typically achieve room-level accuracy using Wi-Fi as the location method. The badge tag transmits a unique ID number linked to an employee's identification.
The Ekahau RTLS solution was implemented by ITH icoserve, a certified Ekahau partner, and is integrated with ITH's ProAct emergency call-management system for intelligent alerts and process-oriented, complex notification cycles. The Ekahau RTLS operates over the facility's existing Cisco Wireless LAN, Ekahau explains, without additional the need for a cabled infrastructure.
The Hall Clinic is the third hospital in the Tyrolean Provincial Hospitals group to implement Ekahau's location-based staff-safety alert solution, along with the University Hospital of Innsbruck and Hochzirl State Hospital.
Checkpoint Systems Donates 650,000 RFID Tags to University of Memphis' AutoID Lab
The Herff College of Engineering's Automatic Identification (AutoID) Laboratory, at the University of Memphis, has announced that it has received a donation of more than 650,000 RFID tags from Checkpoint Systems Inc.
These tags will ensure that students are able to realistically experience and experiment with ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology, according to Dr. Kevin Berisso, the AutoID Lab's director. With this donation, the lab will be supplied with enough tags to perform smaller-scale exercises in class, and also to conduct large-scale activities involving thousands of simultaneous tag reads—tasks that normally would have been performed only as theoretical simulations.
According to Berisso, the lab will use the UHF technology to conduct such in-class activities as evaluating the impact of altering the Q value on the readers (for optimizing read speeds based on tag population size, determining the percent of tags not read, and so forth); examining the impacts of receiving hundreds or thousands of tags into software solutions; and considering the impacts of receiving high-tag-density pallets on warehouse personnel (such as those working at a distribution center where there is a large product mix of smaller items that have all been tagged).
The university's AutoID Lab focuses on educating both students and industry professionals in all automatic-identification technologies (bar codes, RFID, magnetic stripe, biometrics and more). Instead of focusing on one technology, the lab prides itself in helping people choose the best technology for their specific needs. Housed at the Herff College of Engineering, the lab collaborates with other departments in the Herff College, as well as the University of Memphis' Fogelman College of Business & Economics, to help provide answers and research to students and industry.
Atlas RFID Adds New Functionality to Jovix
Atlas RFID Solutions, a provider of field-mobility and automatic-identification solutions for industrial construction, has announced updates to its flagship product, Jovix, to address more material-control challenges on projects across the globe.
Jovix is an RFID-enabled construction-management solution that includes RFID readers for tags, including a ruggedized tablet with a built-in reader for interrogating active ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags. It improves overall project efficiencies by enabling positive material control, via access to actionable, up-to-date information about the availability, status and location of materials in the global supply chain. According to the company, the new features support mobile inspections and preventative maintenance, managing and resolving overage, shortage and damage issues, and predicting future material availability issues through supply and demand forecasting.
The 2014.2 release of Jovix enhances the ability to import drawing data from engineering tools, as well as add and manage attachments within the application. Finally, the mobile tablet interface has been updated to provide a more consistent, user-friendly experience, Atlas RFID reports, making it easier for Jovix to extend material-control capabilities to the field, and eliminating manual, paper-based processes from the job site.
The additions are a natural extension of the project, according to the company, and also address specific challenges raised by clients. "The ability to execute preventative maintenance activities on the tablet, for example, was added after a customer's internal study determined that 50 percent of preventative maintenance time was being spent locating materials, which is something that Jovix Mobile has always done well," said Josh Girvin, Atlas RFID's senior VP of product management, in a prepared statement. "With the addition of this new functionality, Jovix is now able to provide continuous visibility and control throughout the entire material lifecycle from fabrication through installation."
MEPS Real-Time Intros RFID-Enabled Smart Drawers for Health-care Industry
MEPS Real-Time Inc. has introduced its Intelliguard RFID Smart Drawer, designed to automate information capture to accurately and efficiently record anesthesia medication supplies used during surgery. Using patented RFID technology, the company reports, the autonomous drawers are designed to electronically capture data about intraoperative medication usage, in order to support charge capture and provide automatic processing alerts to pharmacies for replenishment tasks.
The new smart drawer is part of MEPS Real-Time's Intelliguard system, an RFID-based drug-management solution that employs EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) passive RFID tags and readers. These include a tabletop reader for commissioning a tag attached to each drug's packaging, as well as RFID-enabled drug-dispensing cabinets and bedside patient trays, to automate medication inventory management and replenishment.
The Smart Drawer comes with a built-in Impinj Speedway Revolution RFID reader and MEPS Real-Time's adhesive UHF passive Small Tags, made with Impinj Monza 4 chips and an antenna based on Impinj's B42 reference design. The company says it has integrated and brought to production two patented and exclusive Dynamic Sensor Module (DSM) reader antennas to increase the read rates and reliability of RFID systems, specifically to address medical applications, and these DSM antennas are incorporated into the new Intelliguard Smart Drawer. According to the company, the Smart Drawer inventories drugs from hospital pharmacies that already have encoded RFID tags, using another MEPS workstation.
The Intelliguard Smart Drawer helps streamline medication management within hospital's operating room and procedural areas, MEPS Real-Time reports, by automatically updating inventory each time the drawer is opened and closed. The drawers can be incorporated into anesthesia supply carts or automated anesthesia systems, and can be customized according to various size and drawer front configurations.
Fujitsu Labs Develops Compact Passive UHF RFID Tag for Metal, ID Cards
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has announced the development of a compact and slim passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tag designed for ID cards, wearable devices, metal parts, and other objects that pose limitations with regard to signal reception.
The new tag overcomes what Fujitsu says has been a long-standing problem: the development of a EPC Gen 2 passive UHF RFID tag compact and slim enough to be affixed to metals or ID cards that can be worn by individuals. Metallic objects and human bodies can hinder signal reception. For that reason, in order to ensure a communications range of 2 meters (6.6 feet), for example, radio wavelength constraints meant that the tag needed to be at least 75 millimeters (3 inches) long, to accommodate an antennas that is one quarter the UHF radio wavelength of approximately 300 millimeters (11.8 inches), or more than 5 millimeters (0.2 inch) in thickness, to accommodate a 5-millimeter spacer.
According to Fujitsu Laboratories, it has now developed a technology that uses a new looped structure in which the RFID tag antenna is wound around thin plastic so that its ends overlap, resulting in what it claims is the world's most compact and slim RFID tag, measuring 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) long and 0.5 millimeter (0.02 inch) thick. The tag can be attached to a range of objects, and can be used in a variety of applications, such as in the management of machine parts, as well as in ID cards that people wear as a means of access control.
Because UHF radio waves have difficulty traveling through metal and the human body, tag makers often incorporate spacers within a passive UHF tag in order to increase the distance between a tag's antenna and the object to which that tag is attached. For example, when using a spacer that is 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) thick, for communications to travel a distance of 2 meters (6.6 feet) or more, the RFID tag itself needs to be at least 75 millimeters long (one quarter the radio wavelength of approximately 300 millimeters), according to the company.
Conversely, to enable communications to travel the same distance, it is possible for the RFID tag's length to be reduced to 33 millimeters (1.3 inches)—one eighth the radio wavelength—but then the spacer needs to be at least 5 millimeters thick. In short, according to Fujitsu Laboratories, there has been a tradeoff between RFID tag length and spacer thickness that is dictated by radio wavelength, making it difficult to achieve tags that were both compact and slim.
Fujitsu Laboratories claims its new looped structure overcomes these limitations. When tags of this type are affixed to metal, the company explains, a large current (loop current) will flow in a manner that follows the shape of the loop, and a portion of that current will leak through to the metal surface to which the tag is attached The original radio waves generated by the loop current combine with the new radio waves being generated by the current leaking through to the adjacent metal, resulting in a combined signal that is emitted on the metal's surface. Adjusting the length and thickness of the overlap at the ends of the RFID tag can optimize the degree of leaked current (the ratio of the two radio waves that are combined) to maximize communications distance. In other words, the metal to which the tag is attached and the tag itself act as a coordinated source of current, functioning as an antenna emitting their combined radio waves, and thereby enabling communications to distances of several meters.
When the RFID tag is attached to a plastic ID card or cardboard instead of metal, there are only the radio waves generated by the loop current. This enables communications equivalent to metal, as the radio signal efficiently propagates in a loop shape outward from the RFID tag, due to the absence of a metal object that would hinder the radio signal. What's more, since the human body has a significant water component and is structured to easily carry an electrical charge, it can be treated the same as metal. An ID card with an embedded tag will act the same as when attached to metal, so the negative effects of being carried on the body are reduced.
The technology will make it feasible to attach tags to a wider variety of objects, such as for managing machine parts and in ID cards carried on the body as a means of access control, thus enabling RFID tags to be utilized in a variety of applications. The company hopes to commercialize this new technology by the start of its 2015 fiscal year, which begins on March 31.
GuestDriven, Estimote Deliver Beacon Solution to Hotel Industry
GuestDriven, a provider of hospitality mobile solutions, has announced a partnership with Estimote, a developer of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)—aka Bluetooth Smart—wireless sensors, to provide Bluetooth beacon solutions to the hotel industry. The two companies will supply beacon solutions to independent hoteliers throughout North America. The solutions consist of GuestDriven's apps for smartphones and tablets, as well as Estimote's Bluetooth beacons. Guests opting in to the beacon push notifications can access the messages from both iOS and Android devices.
Estimote Beacons are small, indoor proximity tags that utilize Bluetooth Smart technology to transmit signals to trigger actions on smartphones or other BLE-enabled devices. They can be strategically placed virtually anywhere within a building or on the outside grounds, according to the two companies. Through the tiny radio signals broadcasted by the beacons, guests can receive a variety of push notifications, such as welcoming, promotional and informative messages regarding their hotel stay, direct to their mobile phones as they walk through the property.
The solution has already been deployed at 12 hotel partners (though GuestDriven and Estimote say they are unable to name the customers at this time). The hoteliers are using the technology to provide guests, prior to check-in, with upgrade opportunities, free drinks at the bar, food and beverage menus, and so forth, so that the hotel is aware of guests' preferences. Upon arrival, guests can receive tips and perks for attractions, restaurant discounts, in-room dining, spa visits and other amenities. Other promotions can include offers for a complimentary yoga class or a free download of a map, invitations to pool activities and more. Additionally, hoteliers are using the solution so concierges can know their guests and their preferences, and so the front desk knows what guests prefer—for example, the desk can offer Uber car service, based on that individual's prior history, at check-out.
The two companies plan to announce several new hotel deployments during the coming weeks as they expand the use of Estimote's beacon technology to additional clients' sites throughout North America.
